So I think many people will know that
Nottingham had a lace industry.
But I think not many people will know
just how important that industry was globally.
So for instance, in Germany,
one of their big lace centres was Plauen and that was often
referred to as the Nottingham of Germany or German Nottingham.
This is how important Nottingham was globally at this time,
it was a recognised centre in
terms of the quality of the lace produced,
but also in terms of innovation.
And it really provided a centre
for the global lace trade. Lace was coming into Nottingham,
it was being made here, and it was being distributed.
By the middle of the 19th century and into the 20th century,
most of the big factories and
manufacturers are outside of Nottingham City itself.
In places like Lenton.
You then have in the city centre merchants,
agents, the middlemen,
essentially of the trade who are buying lace goods and
hosiery from manufacturers and
then distributing it across the globe.
The Lace Market itself was heavily
dominated by the merchants and the agents.
There were several very large buildings
like the Thomas Adams building, for instance,
which were essentially offices,
warehouses, through which
the middlemen went about their work and business.
There were also a number
of foreign firms that were based within the Lace Market.
The majority German, but also some
French and South American as well.
And a lot of the German merchants
that were working in Nottingham lived within the Park estate.
That area was heavily dominated by people
who became very wealthy merchants
through their involvement in the lace trade.
So there you had a mixture of local Nottingham people,
Germans, and at times a few Americans as well.
The high demand for lace in America essentially led
the American government to really push for the development
of a domestic lace industry in the United States.
So the area around New York State,
Long Island, Rhode Island,
Philadelphia, became a centre for the lace industry.
A lot of the machines that were used in those factories
actually came from Nottingham,
from the big machine builders like Wallis
and Longden, John Jardine.
And in fact until recently,
one of those factories was still functioning,
still working until
the 2010s with Wallis and Longden machines.
If we think about the,
essentially the demise of the Nottingham lace industry,
particularly from the 1930s
onwards and certainly into the second half of the 20th century.
There was a strong argument at the time
that this was the result of the exportation of machinery.
So essentially, this idea
that the machines that were produced here in Nottingham,
of course, brought wealth to Nottingham,
but it also took wealth away.
Those lace industries that developed in America that continued to
develop in Germany and Calais then
became very strong competition for Nottingham lace.
And unfortunately Nottingham wasn't able to
remain as competitive as the 20th century went on.
This can be a somewhat simplistic narrative
as there are other factors involved.
But this idea that success does often come with
a negative side and can eventually lead to
the demise of local industry
is a very strong one within this story.